MBB: Great Northeast Athletic Conference

[pjunito]

So the first four seeds have been locked up.

1. Albertus
2. St. Joes
3. JWU
4. Lasell

These teams will host quarterfinal action on Tuesday night.

As for who wants to travel to play these teams.. Well, that hasn't been decide yet. I don't know all of the tie breakers.. But,

currently, Emmanuel is the 8th seed, Suffolk 7th, Rivier 6th, and Anna Maria 5th... But, Emmanuel travels to Albertus this Saturday and Norwich travels to Suffolk. Norwich could win and Emmanuel could lose. At that point, I don't know who the the 8th seed would be. Anna Maria plays Rivier - If Rivier wins, they move to the 5 seed and Anna Maria plays JWU. Big game on Saturday, because I would rather play at Lasell then at JWU. Mt. Ida needs a miracle to to make the playoffs, and Suffolk could end as the 6th seed if they win and Riv losses.. So, lots to watch on Saturday.

[7express]

PJ, you should start the GNAC tournament over on the conference tournament thread on the national board, otherwise I'm going to steal it 

[pjunito]

lol... I was waiting for you or Hoopsfan to steal it. lol...

I didn't want to post until all the seeding was final, didn't want to confuse anyone.. But, I guess I can copy and paste what I just wrote onto that thread, then update on Sunday.

[7express]

lol... I was waiting for you or Hoopsfan to steal it. lol...

I didn't want to post until all the seeding was final, didn't want to confuse anyone.. But, I guess I can copy and paste what I just wrote onto that thread, then update on Sunday.

That's what I do.  As long as I can find at least 1 team that's in it, I'll post that and than update the rest later.  Like I did with the Liberty League.  Hobart clinched the 1 seed, and the rest of the 4 team pile is a complete logjam, so after the season ends Saturday, I can update that message with the other 3 teams.

[GnacBballFan]

Nice work pj & 7!

[pjunito]

Hello All,

The last game of the year is here and I am doing my predictions for post-season awards:


GNAC Player of the Year: Victor Ljuljdjuraj - Albertus
GNAC Rookie of the Year: James Sullivan – Emmanuel
GNAC Defensive player of the year: Victor Ljuljdjuraji – Albertus
GNAC Coach of the year: Mitch Oliver – Albertus

First Team
C – Victor Ljuljdjuraj – Albertus
F – Nick Jobin – St. Joes
F – Darius Watson  -Albertus
G – Quarry Greenway – JWU
G – Eian Davis – Albertus

Second Team
F – Clyde Niba - Lasell
F – Tom Poitras – Rivier
F – Esaie Touze – JWU
G – Matt Medeiros – St. Joes
G – Brandon Ganesh - Lasell

Third Team
F – Nick Walch – Rivier
F – Lamar Lersen - Albertus
G – Sam Nwadike – Suffolk
G – Robert Lewis – JWU
G – Tom McDonald – Norwich

[D3HoopJunkie]

Excellent predictions PJ, since you started it I figured I might as well throw mine up so here's my best shot.


GNAC Player of the Year: Darius Watson- Albertus - Quick Explanation, I know I said that right now Vic would be my POY but I just think Darius is going to catch fire in the tourney at home. He is also the conferences leading scoring and one of the tops in 3PT%. I just think that when it comes down to it the GNAC committee is going to vote for Darius because he is a senior leader on the best team in the conference and he got royally screwed out of the honor last year. Both absolutely deserving but for arguments sake I am taking Mr. Watson
GNAC Rookie of the Year: James Sullivan – Emmanuel - No argument here, I really like this kid. A bit undersized for what they use him for but he is a grinder
GNAC Defensive player of the year: Victor Ljuljdjuraji – Albertus- It cant be anyone else really
GNAC Coach of the year: Mitch Oliver – Albertus

First Team
C – Victor Ljuljdjuraj – Albertus
F – Clyde Niba - Lasell
F – Darius Watson  -Albertus
G – Quarry Greenway – JWU
G – Eian Davis – Albertus

Second Team
F – Nick Jobin – St. Joes
F – Tom Poitras – Rivier
F – Esaie Touze – JWU
G – Matt Medeiros – St. Joes
G – Brandon Ganesh - Lasell

Third Team
F – Nick Walch – Rivier
F – Quantez Franklin - Anna Maria
G – Sam Nwadike – Suffolk
G – Curtis Lucas– JWU
G – Tom McDonald – Norwich

Boy were there some tough guys to leave off this list. But I had to go with my gut an for the most part I agree with PJ. Almost identical with the exception of a few and I also agree with going forward heavy and then guard heavy for the 2nd and 3rd teams. Just so much depth throughout the league. It was tough for me to leave Robert Lewis off but I feel that his teammate Curtis Lucas has had a really stellar career and even though I am an Albertus supporter (which means I HATE JWU) I like to think I recognize hard work and progression from start to finish. Curtis is a senior on a very talented team and he is one of the few players that I have followed closely not related to Albertus over the last 4 years and his game has grown leaps and bounds since when he started at JWU. I think that needs to be rewarded and I bet if you ask his teammate Rob Lewis, he would agree with me. Rob is a sophomore and will no doubt be on my list next season.

Also PJ, Even though it killed me, I had to leave Lemar off because when I looked at the whole body of work with a guy like Quantez Franklin, I feel his consistency and his ability to play well in big games (specifically against Albertus) swayed my opinion in his favor. He is a worker very similar to Lemar but for me, he gets the nod. 

Also, my first team, you give me that starting 5 against any other 1st team conference starting 5 and I really like my chances. People like to hate on the GNAC but this conference is loaded with talent on many teams, I don't care how you look at it.

Awesome idea PJ, maybe GNAC or LilDave, Saint or Former will also fill one out just for the threads sake.

[D3HoopJunkie]

Some very important games in the GNAC this afternoon. Todays games will determine the conference tournament seeding's. Most teams have something on the line as seeds 5 through 8 wont be official until after today. The biggest game of the day is St. Joes and Lasell. If St Joes is able to win, then they would rack up the 2 seed. If they fall, then JWU would grab the 2 seed and bump St. Joes to 3.

Some very interesting story lines. It is one of those days where coaches and players are looking at how they would setup in the 1st round and who they want to try and avoid.

Here is the slate of games!


Anna Maria @ Rivier - 1:00 PM 
   
Saint Joseph's @ Lasell - 3:00 PM 
   
Emmanuel @ Albertus Magnus - 3:00 PM   
   
Johnson & Wales @ Mount Ida - 3:00 PM 
   
Norwich @ Suffolk - 3:00 PM

[pjunito]

Junkie,

I think St. Joe's already clinched the 2 seed. JWU already has 3 conference losses. And St. Joe has the tie breaker (overall record). So, either way, they own the 2 seed.  Unless I am missing something.

[D3HoopJunkie]

PJ,

If St. Joe's were to lose they would be tied with Johnson and Wales at 15 and 3 in the conference. St. Joe's overall record will then move to 16 and 9 whereas Johnson and Wales would move to 19 and 6. Therefore I think Johnson and Wales gets the nod at 2. They split there 2 game in the regular season as well so that would be a wash.

[7express]

PJ,

If St. Joe's were to lose they would be tied with Johnson and Wales at 15 and 3 in the conference. St. Joe's overall record will then move to 16 and 9 whereas Johnson and Wales would move to 19 and 6. Therefore I think Johnson and Wales gets the nod at 2. They split there 2 game in the regular season as well so that would be a wash.

If the GNAC is like most conferences after head-to-head they compare records to other teams in the standings starting at the top.  If you can't break the tie after that, that's when you usually go to obscure tiebreakers like overall record, conf road wins, overall road wins, SOS, the ole coin flip.
Since J&W is 0-2 vs. Albertus while St. Joes is 1-1 vs. Albertus, I think PJ is right, St. Joes already has the 2 seed locked up because of that monks win over AMC.

[pjunito]

Junkie,

You are right.. I mis-read the overall records.. St. Joe needs to win to clinch the 2 seed.

[lildave678]

Didn't get a chance to catch any of the game because I was working. I'm sure I'll get great info from the rest of you but it certainly concerns me that Eian wasn't in the box score. Hoping someone has an explanation haha

[pjunito]

Hey Lil Dave!

Eian picked up his fourth Technical of the year vs JWU, so he had to sit a game. Therefore, he didn't play. Vic hurt his leg in the first half, then came back and got into foul trouble. Second half, first 12 minutes was very sloppy. But they dominated the last 8 minutes.

Now, onto GNAC tournament...

So, GNAC website has this:

#8 Norwich at #1 Albertus

#6 Anna Maria at #3 JWU

no other games on website, but that means that:

#7 Suffolk travels to #2 St. Joe's

and

#5 Rivier travels to #4 Lasell

[Saint-Paul]

AMC / Emmanuel  game on Saturday :  I did not have the opportunity to watch the game, all I saw was the box score and the game recap posted on the school website.  I can only comment on what I read in the recap. There were two items in the game recap that really caught my eye.  One statement said that " the Saints fell behind by 12 points early at the 10 minute mark of the first half ". That is what I was afraid was going to happen and it did. The second comment was " AMC took advantage of the Saints 1-2-2 trap press to go on 10 - 0 and 6 - 1 runs to break the game wide open ".  That is the other thing I was afraid was going to happen and that did happen also.  Not much more to say about that game except it has been a long season.


GNAC Playoffs :  I don't see any upsets in the first round.  Teams 5 through 8 are not quality teams and just don't have the players to pull off a big upset against any of the top four teams.  However, on the second round I do not want to be so quick to make any predictions.  I am not saying it will happen, but all four teams have enough skilled players to put two hot nights together and capture the GNAC title.  I still believe that AMC and JWU will meet for a third time in the championship game, but young players get nervous come playoff time and all four teams  still have a shot to win this league.  Thursday and Saturday will be fun games to watch.


All Conference Awards:

I do not have a vote, but if I did my sheet would look like this;

1  -  Watson  -  AMC

2  -  Greenaway  -  JWU

3  -  Davis  -  AMC

4  -  Barboza -  JWU

5  -  Ljuljdjuraj  -  AMC


POY  -  Watson  -  AMC   every team in the conference game plans around
Watson, more so than any other player.

COY  -  Oliver  -  AMC   put together another nationally ranked team and
got them to play together for a common goal.

DOY  -  Ljuljdjuraj  -  AMC   96 block shots to go along with 21 steals
for the year.

ROY  -  Smith  -  Emmanuel  -  started 21 games as a freshman, averaged
12 points, 2 assists per game.